I have a theory as to one reason (of many) the England National Team tends to underperform in major tournaments: the players all play in the same league. Every England international plays in the Premier League. One might argue this breeds familiarity and is therefore good for the national team, but I think it leads to a lack of stylistic variety in the team and makes the payer pool stagnant. It's basically like inbreeding, is what I'm saying.
BRIGHTON, England - Brighton & Hove Albion secured a 2-1 home win over Leicester City on Sunday thanks to a controversial penalty and a Danny Welbeck header that put them third in the Premier League despite Jamie Vardy's 150th goal in his 250th game for the Foxes.
The visitors will feel hard done by after a number of key decisions went against them, including the one to award Brighton the penalty that saw them open the scoring in the 35th minute.
What the hell was that?! Manchester United and West Ham produced a ludicrous script on Sunday, featuring a West Ham opener, a Cristiano Ronaldo response, an 89th-minute winner and a 90+4’ penalty save off a 90+3’ substitute.
Let’s do the late dramatics first, beginning in the 89th minute with Jesse Lingard curling home United’s go-ahead goal after jinking inside.
MANCHESTER, England — Manchester City were held to a frustrating goalless draw at home by Southampton in the Premier League on Saturday, despite being handed a reprieve when a VAR review led to a penalty and a red card for Kyle Walker both being overturned.
After an uneventful first half where City were well below par, Southampton thought they had been handed a golden chance to edge in front early in the second period as they were awarded a penalty for a foul on Adam Armstrong.
England's Manchester United and Italy's Juventus, Cristiano Ronaldo's current and former teams, both suffered hefty financial losses for 2020-21 as the coronavirus crisis drained European soccer stadiums of fans.
While Executive Vice Chairman Ed Woodward expressed confidence in United's recovery as Old Trafford hosts capacity crowds for the first time in almost 18 months, Juventus said it would also end its 2021-22 financial year, which will still be heavily affected by the pandemic, with a "significant loss."
Over the years, soccer matches have been temporarily suspended for a variety of bizarre reasons, whether it be canine pitch invasions, tennis ball protests or a pig head on the pitch, but it takes a heck of a lot for an event to end a match.
Euro 2020 finalists England pushed world champions France out of the top three in world soccer body FIFA's latest men's soccer rankings published on Thursday.
Belgium remained the top ranked side, followed by Brazil. European champions Italy, on a record unbeaten international run of 37 matches, are fifth with Argentina sixth.
Third place equals England's highest ranking since 2012. Gareth Southgate's side lost on penalties to Italy in the Euro 2020 final at Wembley in July and were World Cup semifinalists in Russia in 2018. France went out of Euro 2020 in the Round of 16.
Manchester City and RB Leipzig played the most thrilling game to open up the 2021-22 Champions League season with a nine-goal thriller that saw City win 6-3. American fans won’t want to talk about the Jack Grealish vs Tyler Adams moment for City’s fourth goal.
Adams was caught ball watching and far too lackadaisical tracking back to get to a ball in his final third. His slowness allowed Grealish to pick up the ball and proceed to do horrible things to the American. Close your eyes USMNT fans, Adams is about to get murdered.
Nothing ignites the kindling like Liverpool versus Milan — two clubs that’ve combined to appear in 20 Champions League finals and contested the greatest of them all — and Wednesday night’s group stage encounter at Anfield was a wildfire.
The first half was a miniature reversal of the “Miracle of Istanbul.” Liverpool dominated the opening 40 minutes with wave after wave of pressure while Milan struggled to break through the press. The stat that best exemplified the one-way action was Liverpool earning 10 corners in the first half to Milan’s zero.
Chelsea defeated Zenit 1-0 in the Champions League on Tuesday, but one of the most exciting moments of the match came from center back Antonio Rudiger. With nothing working in the final third, Rudiger decided he’ll do what Kurt Zouma did against Ajax. Let’s compare the Rudiger and Zouma runs.
First, let’s start with the original Chelsea center back dash. During Chelsea’s Champions League clash against Ajax in 2019 Zouma dribbled through the entire team before launching his shot into orbit.
